What possible reason would you want one around town for?
an option for commuting?
options in addition to the train are
1) folding bike – OK but the trains are getting massively more crowded and more people are using folding bikes, so you need to get ever earlier trains in the morning and getting an early train in the evening isn’t so great either.
2) additional train/tube + walk.
3) walk – leads to about 2 hours walking a day, which is OK but it is ‘dead’ time.
With 1 I can keep my commute time down to 1 hr or 1hr 10. 2 is about 1 hr 20, and 3 is about 1hr 30.
However over the week the extra hassle of 2 and 3 over 1 mean commuting feels much more like a chore.
1 also runs the risk of conflict with cars (one broken collarbone, one nearly broken and long recovery time).
The Airwheel looks good fun so would reduce the chore of the commute, plus the size is more manageable than a bike for getting on a crowded train.
Working late even becomes attractive as there are less people on the South Bank so you can pile along even faster.
I might end up with my folder again (as it is a Birdy and a lot more fun than a Brompton to ride…) but the Airwheel has attractions.
It probably doesn’t look any worse than the folding bike either.